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Earn your Master’s of Public Health (MPH) degree from Simmons University

The Simmons University online Master of Public Health program is designed to give students the real-world skills needed to positively impact public health and address health inequity at local, national, and global levels.

Simmons University's Lefavour Hall Exterior

Committed to Health Equity. Grounded in Social Justice.

The concept of health equity stems from an understanding that public health and social justice are deeply intertwined. The focus of the Simmons Master of Public Health (MPH) program, delivered online from Simmons University, is to prepare students to work toward achieving this equity at local, national, and global levels.

Simmons MPH students gain the skills to become effective public health practitioners through a blend of live online courses, self-paced coursework, and in-person immersion experiences that explore public health through the lens of equity and social justice.

An adaptable and innovative program

The MPH curriculum consists of 42 credit hours that can be completed in the 24-month traditional masters or the 15-month accelerated masters program. The curriculum includes 9 core courses, one elective, and a practicum experience. With multiple opportunities to customize their MPH degree, students can develop content expertise in their area of passion and make an impact on the issues that matter most to them.

Through community-embedded experiences, immersion courses, and a culminating Health Equity Change Project, students are prepared for a career in public health that addresses the underlying causes of health disparities and health inequities.

Why complete your MPH at Simmons?

Simmon’s MPH core values drive the student experience, delivering a state of the art student body of knowledge.

Students gain knowledge and experience grounded in the program’s values:

Social Justice: We value social justice as a core concept of health equity, which embraces the uniqueness, dignity, and inherent value of all individuals and communities, and challenges power differentials and structures that preclude fair opportunity for optimal health for all.
Community Partnership: Rather than work on behalf of, we strive always to work with the communities whose health we aim to enhance, through partnered knowledge production, participatory agenda setting, and collaborative action for social change.
Scientific Rigor and Integrity: We strive for outstanding performance in enacting health equity that is built on the foundation of scientifically rigorous research, evidence-based public health practice, and personal and professional integrity and ethics.
Critical Systems Thinking: In order to assess and address health inequities, we employ a critical lens to understand broad systems and structures that produce and reproduce disparities and injustices in health.
Innovative Leadership: Taking inspiration from past innovation, and challenging existing paradigms, we advance a model of leadership that imagines new systems and structures to improve health equity and create sustainable, transformative impact.

Accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health

CEPH Accredited Bachelor's Master's Seal

The Master of Public Health program at Simmons University is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). CEPH assures quality in public health education to promote excellence in practice, research, and service in the field. Our public health bachelor’s degree programs (online and on-campus BS degrees) and our joint degree programs that combine the BS in Public Health with our online MPH program are also accredited.

Lydje Lahens, MPH ’19

Lydje Lahens joined the MPH program at Simmons because the program’s approach to public health aligned with his drive to make a positive difference for the public good.

“Working with communities was one of the most powerful things about this program. There is nothing more satisfying than collaborating with a local community and seeing the impact that you make.”

Natalya Martins, MPH ‘20

Natalya Martins applied to the MPH program at Simmons because she wanted to take an upstream approach to advance population health. She was promoted to director of strategic initiatives at Massachusetts Health Quality Partners in May 2021.

“The Simmons program and like-minded community helped me gain the skills and drive necessary to incorporate a health equity lens into my day-to-day work.”

Resa Caivano, MD, MPH ‘20

Resa Caivano, MD chose the MPH program at Simmons because the program’s unique focus on health equity and health disparities fit her personal and professional goals. During the program’s Health Equity Change Project (HECP), she developed a service-learning curriculum for first-year medical students that focused on the structural issues impacting population health, and implementing that curriculum has become the next phase in her career.

“Every course I took gave me a new perspective and a new way to approach health inequity.”

Learn more about our Master of Public Health degree

Are you ready to find out more about earning your MPH at Simmons? Request more information about our program, register for a MPH information session, or schedule a class visit or speak to a current or former student. You can also begin your application today!

Degree Requirements

The 42-credit curriculum is broken down as follows:

36 Core Credits
3 Elective Credits
3 Immersion Credits

Coursework

The typical course sequence is as follows for traditional MPH students completing the program in two years:

Term 2

MHEO420	Socio-Structural Determinants of Health	3
MHEO425	Biostatistics	3

Term 3

MHEO435	Community-Based Research for Health Equity	3
MHEO440	Health Policy Analysis & Change	3
MHEO473	Public Health Project Planning I	1

Term 1

MHEO410	Health Equity & Social Justice	3
MHEO415	Epidemiology	3

Term 4

MHEO465	Health Advocacy, Community Organizing, & Innovation	3
	Elective
MHEO494	Public Health Project Planning II	2

Term 5

MHEO495	Health Equity Change Project I	3
MHEO470	Global Health & Political Econ	3

Term 6

MHEO450	Environmental Health & Justice	3
MHEO496	Health Equity Change Project II	3

Students complete one elective course as part of their time in the program for a total of three credits. Students also complete two immersion courses, described below, for a total of three credits. Please note that immersion courses take place during intersessions, between terms, and are therefore not included in the course sequence above.

Accelerated MPH Degree Coursework

The typical course sequence is as follows for students completing the Accelerated MPH degree in fifteen months:

Term 2

MHEO420	Socio-Structural Determinants of Health	3
MHEO425	Biostatistics	3
MHEO465	Health Advocacy, Community Organizing, & Innovation	3
MHEO490	Public Health Project Planning I & II	3

Term 4

MHEO450	Environmental Health & Justice	3
MHEO496	Health Equity Change Project II	3
	Elective

Term 1

MHEO410	Health Equity & Social Justice	3
MHEO415	Epidemiology	3
MHEO435	Community-Based Research for Health Equity	3

Term 3

MHEO440	Health Policy Analysis & Change	3
MHEO470	Global Health & Political Econ	3
MHEO495	Health Equity Change Project I	3

Additional Program Requirements

Immersions

Students are required to attend two immersions–one on the Simmons campus in Boston and one in the US-Mexico borderlands region of Arizona–for a total of three credits during their time in the program. Students are responsible for all immersion travel, program, and accommodation expenses.

Boston: This three-day immersion will take place in Boston, Massachusetts, home of Simmons University. Throughout the immersion, students will be exposed to Boston as their classroom, learning about the city’s history of race and racism and how it is reflected across the urban landscape of transportation, education, employment, health care, and other institutions. Various tools will be used to analyze impacts of racism and oppression on health in the local context. Students will learn from local organizers, public health professionals, and advocates about ongoing local and national models of racial justice as core endeavors toward health equity. The Boston immersion is typically offered prior to the Fall semester.
Arizona: This experiential course invites students to the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, a short distance from the U.S.-Mexico border, on traditional Tohono O’odham lands. Students will have the opportunity to learn from local community partners, examine innovative community-driven models of development and social justice, and engage in a hands-on service project. Through these experiences, students will appreciate both the challenges and promise of this unique geopolitical landscape. The Arizona immersion is typically offered prior to the Spring semester.

For the Boston immersion, students are responsible for arranging accommodations and travel. For destination immersions, students are responsible for arranging travel while accommodations and on-ground logistics will be provided through our program partners.

Health Equity Change Project

In the final two terms of the program, students complete a Health Equity Change Project, which combines the practice and culminating experiences required of MPH degree recipients into a single opportunity. During the Health Equity Change Project, students will:

Choose a local health inequity that is meaningful to them to be the focus of their project.
Analyze this inequity to understand the issues surrounding it and points of intervention.
Identify and partner with an organization that addresses health inequity in their community.
Design a project proposal that will address that health inequity.
Implement and evaluate their project in close collaboration with their host organization and community partners.
Develop a final portfolio featuring their applied public health skill set and attainment of program competencies.

Program options

Traditional

Designed for aspiring and rising public health professionals
Complete in as few as 24 months
Complete 42 credits across six terms
Permitted to work during the program — most students work full time but scale back or find some flexibility with their employer when they begin their Health Equity Change Project

Accelerated

Designed for highly motivated students who can dedicate themselves to their degree on a full-time basis
Complete in as few as 15 months
Complete 42 credits across four terms
Not permitted to work/be employed during the program
Starts annually in the May term

Community Embedded Opportunities

The MPH program at Simmons provides students with practical, hands-on opportunities during which they work with real communities to examine and address public health issues that matter to them. Students can shape the following research opportunities around their passions, career goals, and interest areas:

During the Health Advocacy, Community Organizing, and Innovation course, students partner with an organization and participate in community organizing and/or advocacy through a 20-hour service-learning experience.
As part of the Community-based Participatory Research for Health Equity class, students work with community liaisons and leaders of their choice to develop a small-scale, mixed-methods research study.

Admission Requirements

Our admission committee takes a holistic approach when evaluating each candidate for the program, valuing prior community experience and a passion for improving health equity. To apply to the MPH program at Simmons, students should first review the application requirements and deadlines.

Offered As

Masters

School/Department

Department of Public Health

Format

Online

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Our Faculty

Leigh Haynes

Associate Professor of Practice and Director of the Master of Public Health Program